Babblings of interest — to me, that is

Tag Archives: left hand

Post navigation

I can manage it only if I completely ignore my left hand and trust it to just whale that F# octave. If I focus only on the right hand, I can get it perfectly. The minute I quail a bit and try to sneak in even an atom of awareness on my left hand, it screws up both hands.

I’ve heard more than a few people — all of them amateur wannabes — make the following observations about the one-armed wonderboy of the UK, Nicholas McCarthy.

Now, full disclosure — I really like his work. Not only do I love the era from which most of his rep originates (late Romantic), but I think his inherent style suits that era very well. He’s in the fortunate position of not, for example, being a Baroque stylist by nature but fitting in the era he has little choice but to perform … well, (left) hand in glove.

In addition to fitting the aesthetic of the era well, he also fits the aesthetic of left-hand rep very well. Left-hand piano rep is almost always hugely difficult to perform, either because it was written for existing pianists who lost the use of their right arms or because it was written as show-off stuff for two-armed pianists who wanted to make everyone gasp over what they could accomplish with “one arm tied behind their backs.”

And I think he exudes an aura of aristocratic negligence that suits this sort of sentimental “I’m not even breathing hard” rep very well.

But whenever someone comes along in that sort of situation, there are always naysayers who crowd around.

“There isn’t enough left hand rep to perform as a concert pianist for all of one’s life.” Said by someone who thinks that Ravel’s Concerto is all there is, or who obviously feels that classical performance is limited to dead-guy music, with new commissioned works and performer arrangements considered less valid.

“He’s very good but he’s just got a career because he only has one arm.” (Ah, the pity card.) No, he’s got a career because he’s a stubborn bastard who works his ass off and was capable of sitting in an 80,000-seat stadium and performing for a worldwide television audience without crapping himself — and when he was only in his early 20s. That all matters a thousand times more than pretty much anything else.

He’s an excellent musician, has a ton of rep to perform, has great visibility to commission new works, and clearly has a head like a rock and the stomach for travel and performance venues that would send anyone else into fear-based fits.

He’ll be fine. I look forward very much to what he’ll do next. No more of this presenting others at the BBC Proms; I want to see and hear him onstage next time.

… is what I kind of determined last night. I’ve been trying to figure out ways to manage a big leap apart in both hands on a strong chord that will stand out like a fart in a confessional if I get it wrong. The end determination was that I need to focus more on the right hand chord and let the left hand sort itself out since that’s only hitting a fairly simple octave.

It’s very hard not to focus on my left hand. Especially in this part of this piece, that’s where all the fun stuff is happening. It feels unnatural to me to “see” my right hand instead.

But if I do this slowly and deliberately, it does get better and more accurate, so I’m pleased with that. It’s just going to take some work to burn it in.

It’s getting me thinking about left-hand-only piano work. I’ve already said that my stuff is probably recognizable as written by a left-handed musician. Nothing at all that I’ve written would be challenging for a conservatory-trained pianist at all, but there are parts of it where the melody ping-pongs between the hands, and where the bulk of expression is in the left hand, even parts (simple ones) where the left hand is the only one playing. Again, none of it would be considered hard by any well-trained pianist, but a left-handed one might at least feel some of my pieces to be a bit more comfy than others.

I might just give this a shot — left-hand only. Will be fun to see what happens.

And how lovely that there are no right-handed pianists freaking out and ranting at them to stop! “The Piano is a Right-Handed Instrument! The melody belongs in the right hand! It’s actually easier for left-handers to play the melody in the right hand! Stop that at once!” (It reads better if you imagine a violinist pursing their lips like a chicken’s butt while saying this.)

You’ll find videos here of him playing on both sides; a natural right-hander, he came down with focal dystonia and could only manage by re-teaching himself to bow with his left hand. As a result of his experiences, he became a strong advocate for people bowing with their natural dominant hand, saying that after many years of playing left-handed, he was still nowhere near as good as he was as a righty. The videos showing him bowing right-handed are, of course, much older than the current lefty ones.

Left-handed string playing continues to bring me joy and make me smile just watching it. 🙂 As a lefty, you sort of get resigned to seeing everything done bass-ackwards from how you’d like it because let’s face it, we have no choice. So seeing more left-handed bowing — and by a right-handed ally — means a lot to me. He’s a wonderful guy as well, and any left-hander who is interested in learning a string instrument and bowing with the proper hand for us is encouraged to check him out.

Clicking on “left hand” in my tag cloud will also take you to some of my various posts on the topic of left-handed music making as well.

Okay. I tend to ignore the parts of my body that are not my brain, hands, or mouth. I love languages, I love thinking, and I love making stuff. The rest of me I regard as necessary peripheral crap to cart the brain, hands, and mouth around, and keep them going. Organs don’t work so well that way — you need a broader awareness of your physical self to play this thing. Either I will settle out as one of many amateur organists who aren’t very good, or my awareness of my physical self will gradually expand.

I can see why Cameron Carpenter states that dancers make good organists and why he chugs down a gallon of whole milk a day to keep from becoming underweight. Playing just these simple little pedal studies (I’m talking simple here) reminded me of the very few times in my life when I’ve been on the back of a horse and had to use muscles that I didn’t realize I had. I can easily see why a good organist at that level would need 5k Calories a day to keep from going gaunt.

I’m also becoming irritated at the placement of the Great and Swell stops. I like using my right hand on the Great and my left on the Swell, and if this were a touch-screen VPO, I could probably reverse the stop banks and get this. Instead, I’m stuck adjusting to yet one more device built the total opposite of the way I want it built. Yes yes yes, it’s a right-handed world. No kidding. After 46 years, it’s beginning to grate.